ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author widens the analytical perspective to consider the role of the police in the process of "institutionalization." The police could not be seen to conspire with the organizers to breach the Sessional Order and, therefore, would agree only to a route from the assembly point to the edge of the Sessional Area, which for these purposes was near Leicester Square underground station. The "OutRage" leader pointed to how the breaching of the Sessional Order had been arranged in collaboration with the police and that a good working relationship had emerged in the weeks since that event. The police are one part, but an important part, of the web of institutions that institutionalize conflict and dissent. Even arrests can be made cost free if the police accept the goodwill of the protestors, as they did when "OutRage" breached the Sessional Order.
